Chapter 24 I'm so angry!
Chapter 24
Having spent too long in a world of absolute silence, Yu Pan developed an almost greedy longing for sound after regaining her hearing.
Specifically, throughout the afternoon, Yu Pan kept pestering Shen Yanzhou, gesturing and trying to get him to talk.
Shen Yanzhou naturally went along with him, softly talking about all sorts of trivial things in his ear, from the clouds outside the window to what dishes she wanted to cook for him that evening. This continued until nightfall.
Yu Pan's emotions fluctuated greatly in the afternoon. After taking a shower, she kept yawning, and her eyes began to redden and tear up. Shen Yanzhou coaxed her to bed before packing her clothes and taking a shower.
He never expected that when he came back after hanging up the clothes, he would see Yu Pan sticking her head out of the mosquito net, staring at him with wide eyes.
"..." Shen Yanzhou dried his hands. "Why are you awake?"
Yu Pan tilted her head back, pointed to her ears, and gestured, "There are so many sounds, I feel a little dizzy."
Shen Yanzhou immediately stopped smiling, sat down on the edge of the bed, and covered his ears with her palms to block out some of the sound. "Will this make you feel better?"
Yu Pan rested her head on his lap, feeling the gentle pressure on her ear and the sudden decrease in sound, and nodded.
Shen Yanzhou covered Yu Pan's face for a while, and seeing that he was not in so much pain, he took the Pechoin cream from the table, unscrewed the cap, revealing the snow-white cream inside, and said, "Turn it right side up, I'll wipe your face."
Yu Pan immediately turned over and obediently lay down facing Shen Yanzhou.
Like a cat waiting to be stroked, Shen Yanzhou thought to himself, scooped some ointment into his palm, let it melt, and then applied it to Yu Pan's face.
His hands had a thin layer of calluses from doing rough work, and even though his movements were light, they still made Yu Pan frown slightly.
"You're so delicate." Shen Yanzhou said indulgently, then used the back of her hand to rub his hand. "Hold out your hand."
Yu Pan obediently handed over her hand. After her hand was wiped moist, she imitated Shen Yanzhou and smeared some ointment on his face, looking very serious.
After wiping her face, Yu Pan tugged at Shen Yanzhou's clothes and clung to him, wanting him to speak.
"Didn't you say it would be noisy?" Shen Yanzhou teased him deliberately.
Yu Pan gestured: "Your voice isn't noisy, I like it."
Shen Yanzhou's heart softened like water. She pulled him down to lie down with one arm, while her other hand continued to cover his ears. "Is it still noisy like this?"
Yu Pan shook her head and wrote stroke by stroke on Shen Yanzhou's chest: "I'm a little scared."
"Hmm?" Shen Yanzhou lowered his head, his chin brushing against Yu Pan's soft hair.
"I'm afraid I won't be able to hear again when I wake up."
Shen Yanzhou paused in patting his back, then hugged him tighter: "It's okay. Being able to hear means you've recovered somewhat from before. Even if there are setbacks, recovery is only a matter of time. Let's take it slow."
Yu Pan nestled in Shen Yanzhou's arms and nodded, listening to his steady heartbeat and the world that became blurry and gentle after his hands covered her ears, her eyelids gradually drooping.
Shen Yanzhou half-embraced him, and in the dim light, he looked at the ceiling of the bed and fell into deep thought.
Yu Pan's hearing has recovered, which is good news. It proves that the treatment was effective, but this is only the first step.
He then recalled what Wang Hongjuan had said—
“His hearing problems are due to excessive worry about you, but there must be a deeper trauma behind his aphasia.”
In order to recover as soon as possible, Yu Pan cooperated well with the treatment. He even took the initiative to mention his past experience of being homeless.
As time went on, Wang Hongjuan noticed that Yu Pan's description of her daily life as a homeless person only included the warm and hot seasons. When she tentatively asked Yu Pan how she spent the winter, Yu Pan wrote in her notebook, "I don't remember."
When she tried to ask about the days before winter, Yu Pan gave the same answer: "I don't remember."
His memories begin after the winter before he was taken in.
This led Wang Hongjuan to conclude that the trauma that caused Yu Pan to lose his speech was in the memory he had forgotten, and that his brain selectively sealed away that overly painful memory in order to protect him.
Too painful a memory...
When Shen Yanzhou heard this, he remembered the scene when his parents brought Yu Pan back. She was tiny, with shoulder-length hair that was messy, nestled in her father's arms, her eyes timidly looking around.
At that time, his parents weren't sure how old Yu Pan was, so they just compared their heights. Shen Yanzhou was nine years old at the time and quite tall, while Yu Pan was three heads shorter than him, so they set the age at six.
What kind of painful things might such a young child encounter while wandering the streets?
There are just too many.
Every time Shen Yanzhou thought about this, his heart ached.
Perhaps because her hearing had just recovered and her brain was not yet used to processing so much auditory information during sleep, Yu Pan slept very restlessly, tossing and turning, appearing very irritable, and occasionally startling.
In the middle of the night, he groaned and woke up Shen Yanzhou, unconsciously rubbing his reddened ears.
Shen Yanzhou immediately understood, turned to the side, and covered Yu Pan's ears with his hands. Sure enough, after a while, Yu Pan's furrowed brows slowly relaxed, and his breathing became long and even.
Shen Yanzhou covered his ears and stayed up almost all night until dawn.
The next morning, Yu Pan woke up to a gurgling sound.
He opened his eyes and paused for a few seconds before realizing that it was the sound of porridge boiling in the pot.
Occasionally, a bicycle bell could be heard outside the window, along with the sounds of neighbors washing up in the alley...
He got up, ran barefoot to the balcony, and hugged Chen Yanzhou from behind as he was washing vegetables.
Shen Yanzhou was startled. He turned around and saw that Yu Pan was only wearing a thin shirt. He immediately became anxious: "Yu Pan, where are your clothes?"
After saying that, he stopped washing the vegetables, dried his hands, picked the person up in his arms, and quickly walked back to the room.
"Don't you feel cold?"
Yu Pan was placed on the bed by Shen Yanzhou, and he watched as Shen Yanzhou took a warm sweater and coat into the quilt.
This scene looks familiar... Yu Pan thought.
"Still standing there? Raise your hand." Shen Yanzhou called out to him, holding up a sweater.
Yu Pan immediately raised her hand, asking Shen Yanzhou to help her put on her sweater.
Shen Yanzhou quickly wrapped Yu Pan's upper body up tightly, then went to get him his outer trousers.
When it came time to put them on, seeing the dust on his feet, his face hardened again: "How many times have I told you to get out of bed and put on your shoes? In winter, put on your clothes first when you get up. Have you been ignoring me?"
Yu Pan listened to Shen Yanzhou's rambling and felt really good. He gestured to Shen Yanzhou, "Because I heard you were there, I want to find you right away."
This sentence was more effective than any explanation, instantly extinguishing all of Shen Yanzhou's feigned anger.
Seeing his smiling eyes crinkling, Shen Yanzhou shook his head. Oh well, he'd just keep an eye on things from now on.
Shen Yanzhou bent down to help him put on his pants. As he was about to pull them up, he saw Yu Pan still smiling, so he patted his bottom and said, "Still smiling? Lift your bottom up a bit."
Yu Pan hugged Shen Yanzhou's neck obediently and cooperated. After the pants were on, she gestured to him, "I'm so happy."
"I'm so angry." Shen Yanzhou put woolen slippers on him.
"Don't be angry," Yu Pan gestured.
Shen Yanzhou tapped his head, about to say something, when he suddenly smelled a burnt smell and remembered the porridge cooking outside.
It was clearly too late.
…
Today's breakfast is stir-fried greens, boiled eggs, and... slightly charred white porridge.
However, this was not a big problem for Yu Pan. He still ate with great relish, as if each bite was a delicacy.
As Shen Yanzhou watched him eat his porridge while staring at his ahoge (cowlick), looking completely satisfied, that thought resurfaced: as long as he's alright, let him do whatever he wants.
Of course, it's still not okay to run around in the dead of winter wearing just a single layer of clothing!
So after breakfast, Yu Pan was severely reprimanded by Shen Yanzhou, who bit her lip.
Fortunately, she didn't need to go to the hospital for treatment today. Otherwise, with her lips red, numb, and a little swollen, Yu Pan wouldn't know how to explain it to Director Wang.
In the summer, you can say you rubbed yourself after being bitten by mosquitoes, but it's hard to believe you would use that excuse in the winter.
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Author's Note: Panpan got a severe lesson [crying emoji]
Panpan: I like being scolded [cat emoji]
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